The Bombay Leprosy Project (BLP) - India

BLP provides disability services to a large number of patients from all parts of the city, its suburbs, and neighbouring districts. BLP has undertaken several clinical trials with newer drugs meant to eliminate leprosy. The deformed leprosy patients receiving disability services in their homes need follow-up care - perhaps lasting as long as 10 years - to ensure compliance and to evaluate their progress. A team of community volunteers (CVs) trained by the paramedical workers (PMWs) of BLP pick up on new leprosy cases among the slum population through a door-to-door survey, provide domiciliary medical treatment, monitor the progress of nerve damage, offer field-based disability care, and identify clinical problems occurring in some of the patients who have already completed the prescribed course of treatment. While performing these activities, they come across problems for which they need to seek advice from the doctors available in the Central Monitoring cell.

Accordingly, mobile phones and pagers enable the workers to establish contact between the CVs and the Central Monitoring cell; this contact allows them to receive specific advice or instructions on the management of complications. These communication technologies are meant to prevent the occurrence of consequences such as reactions/neuritis and development of new disability by enabling instant advise on immediate treatment with steroids.

Apart from helping the leprosy patients, the BLP has contributed several scientific articles to national and international leprosy journals and has also developed practical guides and audio-visual aids that offer task-oriented training to health and leprosy staff.

Health.

Programme organisers note that approximately 400,000 new cases of leprosy have been reported in India. WHO estimates there are about 1.3-1.5 million leprosy patients with grade-2 disability in the world.